With a lot of help from those generous enough to share information on this board, I constructed a heatstick a week ago using a process similar to this.

Tonight, I ran her through some boil trials and noticed a pretty terrible odor coming off the exposed JB weld epoxy. It smells similar to wet paint. Steam coming off a rolling boil has the same off odor. I have read that others have used this type of epoxy in their heatsticks and understand that its not an FDA approved use. Have others experienced this odor? Did it go away after a few hard boils?

My concern is if anyone has experienced off flavors or other ill affects in finished product that they attributed to using this type of epoxy in direct contact with strike/sparge water or wort.

The JB weld had a full week to cure before I tested it. [other things got in the way]

Gremlyn1 - After boiling for awhile unplug it, pull it out and smell your exposed JB weld. It was very apparent coming off mine.

HSM - Your heatstick [pictured in the heatstick = Awesome thread] looks very similar to mine. During this first boil I noticed some oily residue floating in the water after I was done. I imagine this was also due to the exposed JB.

Thanks for the write up jkarp - I think I'm going to build another one that limits JB weld exposure to liquid. [and use a non zinc lock nut] My existing one may be just fine but replacing it will afford me piece of mind and give me another project to tinker with.